The Green Deal – Myths cleared up by Greg Barker

The Green Deal will be launching this autumn, but still there seems to be a lot of confusion amongst homeowners for what it will entail and how they can benefit.

The Green Deal is headed by the Coalition as part of their campaign to be the greenest Government ever and is the most ambitious home improvement scheme since the 1940s.

The Government hope that the Green Deal will help to draught proof homes, making them more energy efficient, in order to help homeowners cut their bills and reduce the dependence on fossil fuels.
Many misconceptions have arisen, some believing the scheme to be too good to be true, whilst others have gotten facts wrong in their attempt to interpret the deal. On this note, Greg Barker has stepped in to clear up some of the common misinterpretations.

The potential to save money

With the Green Deal, people can expect to save money and plenty of it. the good thing with the Green Deal is that homeowners won’t have to pay upfront costs on energy efficiency technology, and instead there will be a loan against the property.

This loan will remain, even if you move home. The monthly payments are fixed too, intended to work out how much you’ll save monthly on energy bills and taking a chunk from that. This means that the more gas and electricity prices rise in the future, the more money you’ll save.

The method of calculating savings

There seems to be a common misconception that is calculation is inaccurate, but that is simply not the case. The Green Deal calculation is based on a survey taking into account 1,000s of properties and is constantly updated.

The Green Deal surveys and pilots

Again, there appears to be a stigma about the surveys and pilot tests showing that homeowners won’t save money. Once again this rumour can be dispelled, and research in the media only took into account a handful of homes with a wide range of home improvements.

These trials were also not completed to the Green Deal standards and instead focused on technology that won’t be included, such as solar thermal heating. This will instead be subsidised under a different scheme.
Obviously, the Government can in no way guarantee savings, if homeowners then change the way they generate electricity.

The Green Deal will be compulsory

This is something else that seems to have been spread, but is absolutely not true. The Green Deal remains as a possibility for homeowners to consider in order to reduce energy bills. The loan will not be a personal debt and is instead attached to the property’s energy bill.

The final details of the scheme will be put into place over the next few weeks and months, ready for launch in October this year. Once the scheme is live, Greg Barker is sure there’ll be changes made to enhance the scheme, with additional incentives added to keep it on track. New, energy efficient technology would also be included, as and when it becomes available.

However, Mr Barker says the actual scheme, which will allow homeowners to make monthly savings on energy bills whilst paying back the installation costs over 25 years, is rock solid.

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